Joan Rivers was relentless, a quality that served her well in her nearly six-decade-long career built on her barbed humor.

The comedian, who died at age 81 on Thursday at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City after going into cardiac arrest during a medical procedure Aug. 28, originally had dreams of becoming an actress.

After graduating from Barnard in 1954, Rivers — born Joan Alexandra Molinsky in Brooklyn — took a short detour into marriage before setting her sights on Broadway and changing her name to Rivers, after her agent Tony Rivers. With few stage roles being offered, she turned to stand-up comedy in clubs around Greenwich Village to pay the bills. Her style was sharp-tongued, even abrasive. She never played nice and famously said, “Screw kindness. You have to tell the truth. That’s what comedy is all about.”

Her attitude got her noticed in an era when there were few women in the business. A booking on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson” in 1965 cemented her fame when the iconic host told her, “God, you’re funny. You’re going to be a star.”

By 1983, with her shtick of poking fun at herself — plastic surgery, marriage — and being catty to other women, her popularity had soared and she had become a “Tonight Show” permanent guest host. In 1986, she went on the show to promote her book “Enter Talking,” which she had partially dedicated to Carson, “who made it all happen,” and whom she considered a mentor. That night they reminisced and talked of getting older.

“I’m wearing the same underwear, which everybody remembers,” joked Rivers. Actually, she wore the same black dress she had worn in the 1965 appearance, a move that might have drawn the acid wit that the comedian would use in her later career as host of “Fashion Police” on E! network.

It turned out to be Rivers’ last appearance on the show with Carson. Not long after, she offended him when the new Fox Network announced that it was giving her a late night talk show that would air opposite “Tonight.” In her autobiographical 2008 play “Joan Rivers: A Work in Progress by a Life in Progress,” which played at the Geffen Playhouse in Westwood, she would lament that when she called Carson to explain it to him, he hung up on her and never spoke to her again.

“She was one of the best comedy guests Johnny (Carson) ever had,” said comedian David Steinberg in a statement.

Cleared way for women

On that final night with Carson, Rivers had him in stitches when they were discussing brains vs. beauty in a woman. “No man has ever put his hand up a woman’s dress looking for a library card,” she cracked.

Her targets that night included Tina Turner, the queen of England, Madonna and Christie Brinkley. Ironically, while Rivers helped open doors for female comedians like Kathy Griffin and Sarah Silverman as well as dozens on Comedy Central, more often than not her one-line vitriol — funny or not — was aimed at women.

“Can we talk?” was her catchphrase, which she explained in “Enter Talking” as a way to launch the idea that “the country was ready for something new — a woman comedian talking about life from a woman’s point of view.”

Rivers was often self-deprecating in her humor and discussed topics that at the time were considered taboo for a woman. While this broke stereotypes, the comedian rarely ventured beyond her persona of being sarcastic and mean.

Her late-night show turned out to be a disaster. Within a year, Fox wanted to remove Rivers’ husband, Edgar Rosenberg, who was a producer of the show. When she took a stand, the network fired them both. Three months later, in May 1987, Rosenberg committed suicide. The story drew headlines, especially since digs at Rosenberg had been part of Rivers’ comedy routine.

For the next several years, Rivers’ career was more often than not on daytime television, including her syndicated talk show that ran for five years. In 1994, she received a Tony nomination for playing Lenny Bruce’s mother in a play on Broadway. The same year, she and daughter Melissa hosted E!’s pre-awards show for the Golden Globe Awards, and Rivers’ red-carpet fame began. They also starred as themselves in a highly-rated TV movie, “Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story.”

On Thursday, E! released a statement honoring Rivers: “For decades Joan has made people laugh, shattered glass ceilings and revolutionized comedy. She was unapologetic and fiercely dedicated to entertaining all of us and has left an indelible mark on the people that worked with her and on her legions of fans. She’s been a much beloved member of the E! family for over 20 years and the world is less funny without her in it. Today our hearts are heavy knowing Joan will not be bounding through the doors.”

Rising fame

In the past two decades, the comedian’s fame began to grow beyond that of her prior heyday. Her schedule had been relentless. In addition to her red-carpet hostings, Rivers appeared on numerous TV shows, including winning NBC’s “The Celebrity Apprentice” in 2009, guest roles on “Nip/Tuck” (an obvious choice considering all her plastic surgery jokes), and even on QVC to promote her own product line.

She’s also continued writing books, the latest being this summer’s “Diary of a Mad Diva.” Her previous one, the 2012 “I Hate Everyone … Starting With Me” takes potshots at the likes of Snooki and the Kardashians as well as Jesus, Gandhi and Anne Frank. Age did not seem to mellow Rivers but instead gave her the freedom to be more caustic — and without censorship, becoming more risqué in her comments.

Rivers also began to be more candid about her life, admitting while on the “Howard Stern Show” to several affairs, including one with Robert Mitchum.

Some people found her humor abrasive or even offensive, but she never stopped working. Last week, she gave scathing appraisals of the dresses on the red carpets at MTV’s Video Music Awards and the Emmys. On. Aug. 29, Rivers was scheduled to do a stand-up show at the Count Basie Theatre in New Jersey.

To promote the performance, Rivers did a feisty interview from her Los Angeles home while “in bed eating Cheetos” and declared she wasn’t the politically correct type. “I’ll talk about anything I want, taboo or not. If you can’t handle it, don’t come.”

Rob Lowman began at the L.A. Daily News working in editing positions on the news side, including working on Page 1 the day the L.A. Riots began in 1992. In 1993, he made the move to features, and in 1995 became the Entertainment Editor for 15 years. He returned to writing full time in 2010. Throughout his career he has interviewed a wide range of celebrities in the arts. The list includes the likes of Denzel Washington and Clint Eastwood to Kristin Stewart and Emma Stone in Hollywood; classical figures like Yo Yo Ma and Gustavo Dudamel to pop stars like Norah Jones, Milly Cyrus and Madonna; and authors such as Joseph Heller, John Irving and Lee Child. Rob has covered theater, dance and the fine arts as well as reviewing film, TV and stage. He has also covered award shows and written news stories related to the entertainment business. A longtime resident of Santa Clarita, Rob is still working on his first more-than-30-year marriage, has three grown children (all with master's degrees) and five guitars.

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